Russia Tightens Security in Kursk Region, Where Ukraine Launched an Incursion as Fighting Persists

 In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, a column of the Russian Armed Forces move to build up forces conducting active combat operations with Ukrainian formations in the Sudzhansky district of ​​Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, a column of the Russian Armed Forces move to build up forces conducting active combat operations with Ukrainian formations in the Sudzhansky district of ​​Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
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Russia Tightens Security in Kursk Region, Where Ukraine Launched an Incursion as Fighting Persists

 In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, a column of the Russian Armed Forces move to build up forces conducting active combat operations with Ukrainian formations in the Sudzhansky district of ​​Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, a column of the Russian Armed Forces move to build up forces conducting active combat operations with Ukrainian formations in the Sudzhansky district of ​​Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia on Saturday announced what it called a counterterrorism operation to increase security in the border region of Kursk, where an incursion this week by Ukrainian forces caught Russian troops off-guard and exposed its military vulnerabilities in the nearly 2½-year-old war.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that fighting was continuing in the Kursk region and that the army has conducted airstrikes against Ukrainian forces, including using a thermobaric bomb that both causes a blast wave and creates a vacuum that suffocates its targets.

The measures announced for Kursk, and for the neighboring Belgorod and Bryansk regions that border Ukraine, allow the government to relocate residents, control phone communications and requisition vehicles.

The raid that began on Tuesday is the largest cross-border foray of the war and raises concerns about fighting spreading well beyond Ukraine.

In neighboring Belarus, where Russian troops are deployed but which hasn't sent its own army into Ukraine, President Alexander Lukashenko said Saturday that its air defenses shot down unspecified objects launched from Ukraine that were flying over Belarusian territory.

“I do not understand why Ukraine needs this. We need to figure it out. As I said before, we made it clear to them that any provocations will not go unanswered,” Lukashenko said, according to state news agency Belta.

Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin later identified the objects as drones and said that Lukashenko has ordered troop reinforcements sent to border areas.

A Russian plane-launched missile slammed into a Ukrainian shopping mall on Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding 44 others, authorities said.

The mall in Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, is located in the town’s residential area. Thick black smoke rose above it after the strike.

“This is another targeted attack on a crowded place, another act of terror by the Russians,” Donetsk regional head Vadym Filashkin said in a Telegram post.

It was the second major strike on the town in almost a year. Last September, a Russian missile hit an outdoor market there, killing 17.

July saw the heaviest civilian casualties in Ukraine since October 2022, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said Friday. Conflict-related violence killed at least 219 civilians and injured 1,018 over the month, the mission said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said that reinforcements are being sent to Kursk to counter Ukraine’s raid, with Russia deploying multiple rocket launchers, towed artillery guns, tanks transported on trailers and heavy tracked vehicles.

The ministry reported fighting on the outskirts of Sudzha, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border. The town has an important pipeline transit hub for Russian natural gas exports to Europe.

There has been little reliable information on the daring Ukrainian operation, and its strategic aims are unclear. Ukrainian officials have refused to comment on the incursion, which is taking place about 500 kilometers (320 miles) southwest of Moscow.

Asked about Ukraine’s incursion, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday the United States was “in touch with our Ukrainian counterparts,” but that he wouldn't comment until “those conversations are complete.”

“There’s been no changes in our policy approaches,” Kirby said when asked about US policy on use of weapons. “They’re using it in an area where we had said before that they could use US weapons for cross-border strikes. The end goal here is to help Ukraine defend itself.”

Mathieu Boulegue, a defense analyst at the Chatham House think tank in London, said that the Ukrainians appear to have a clear goal, even if they’re not saying what it is.

“Such a coordinated ground force movement responds to a clear military objective,” Boulegue told The Associated Press. Also, the raid has spooked the Russian public and delivered a slap in the face to Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering Ukraine “a great PR coup,” he said.

The attack “is a massive symbol, a massive display of force (showing) that the war is not frozen,” he said.



Doctor Cites the Pope's 'Surprising Improvement' after Surviving Life-Threatening Crises

 Pope Francis appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP)
Pope Francis appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP)
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Doctor Cites the Pope's 'Surprising Improvement' after Surviving Life-Threatening Crises

 Pope Francis appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP)
Pope Francis appears at a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he has been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since Feb. 14. (AP)

Pope Francis has shown ''a truly surprising improvement'' since returning to the Vatican to convalesce after surviving a life-threatening bout with double-pneumonia, the doctor who coordinated the pontiff's five-week hospitalization said Saturday.

“I find him very lively,” Dr. Sergio Alfieri said, after visiting the pope at his apartment in the Santa Marta Domus on Wednesday, three days after his release from Rome's Gemelli hospital. “I believe that he will return if not to 100%, 90% of where he was before.”

Francis appeared frail and weak as he greeted a crowd of well-wishers from a hospital balcony on Sunday. His voice was waning as he praised a woman in the crowd for bringing yellow flowers. He was able to only partially lift his arm to bless the people and he gasped for air as he was wheeled back inside.

Alfieri said the pope's voice was regaining strength, and that his reliance on supplemental oxygen has decreased. The limited mobility of his arm was due to an unspecified trauma he sustained before being hospitalized, and that will take time to heal, Alfieri said.

The 88-year-old pope was hospitalized on Feb. 14 after a long bout with bronchitis that left him breathless at times, and which quickly developed into double pneumonia and revealed a polymicrobial (viral, bacterial and fungal) respiratory infection. Throughout the ordeal, doctors emphasized the complexity of his condition, given his age, lack of mobility requiring a wheelchair, and the removal of part of a lung as a young man.

Alfieri repeated that he didn't think the pope would make it after a severe respiratory crisis a week after being hospitalized, and he informed the pope that a “decisive” treatment necessary to save him would put his organs at risk.

“He gave his consent, and then he looked at Massimiliano Streppetti, whom he named his personal health assistant who assumed the responsibility, to say, 'We approve everything,' also at the price of coming out with damaged kidneys or bone marrow that produces damaging red blood cells,” said Alfieri.

Alfieri preferred to describe the treatment as “decisive,” and not aggressive, and emphasized that no extraordinary, life-extending measures were ever taken. The Feb. 22 incident was one of several critical moments when the pope's life hung in the balance, the doctor said.

While Francis beat the double pneumonia in the hospital, Alfieri said he is continuing to treat the fungal infection, which he said will take months to resolve. The pope is also receiving physical, respiratory and speech therapy.

Alfieri continues to consult the pope's personal medical team daily, and will visit Francis in the Vatican every week.

The pope demonstrated his trademark humor in this week's visit, responding to a comment by Alfieri that the 88-year-old pontiff had the mentality of a 50- or 60-year-old. “As I leaned in, he said, 'Not 50, 40,'” Alfieri recalled. “So his good sense of humor is back.”

Doctors have ordered the pope to rest for at least two months and to avoid crowds. But after seeing the pope's improvements and knowing his work ethic, Alfieri warned that “if he recovers so quickly, they will have to put on the brakes.”